Pass the popcorn: MoviePass plans to start acquiring and distributing their own movies

MoviePass, the monthly subscription service taking the theater biz by storm that allows people to see infinity movies a month for $10, has recently decided to create a new division focused on acquiring and distributing their own films.

The company reportedly announced their new subsidiary, creatively titled MoviePass Ventures, to a group of industry professionals during a panel at the Sundance Film Festival last week.

They’ve had a big year

Since drastically lowering their prices last August from a steep $50 a month to $9.95, the company has risen from obscurity to bring butts back to movie theaters across the country.

Last month, the company announced they had more than 1m subscribers, with the service currently accepted at 91% of theaters in the US.

Don’t go crying “disrupter” yet

As it stands, MoviePass buys up nearly 3% of all movie tickets in the US, which seems pretty high compared to their heroically low monthly charge for users.

With a single movie ticket nearing $18 in large cities, many speculate their stellar price point will be unsustainable — and that they’ll be forced to readjust, or “shut down completely.”

Technically they’re not making money yet, so acquiring films — and cutting out the distribution middleman — with MoviePass Ventures is likely an effort to increase revenue and use its subscription service as a mega marketing machine to their own movies in the future.